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Connected economy within Google

In our connected economy it is important for businesses to be social. Google has increased its connectivity with Google Plus, as Bob Barker discusses.
So Google is beginning to go social itself. Its Google plus network is only two years old and it’s still working out how best to use that glue.

But what they’ve done, if you look at the bar that Google has, when you look at the Google bar, the plus bar is right at the far left. It’s the first thing on the menu. It’s before search.
So they see social as very, very important. The thing that Google Plus does, is it gives people an identity within the Google world and it allows people to share content within the Google world, and it allows people to connect with people in the Google world, and they’ve got a real tight integration with everything else that they do.
So within Google Plus you have circles of friends. So they’ve been really thinking through how do you operate in the social world.
So you can have circles of friends and those circles of friends can also reflect in your Google Mail, so if you want to look at, if you have a particular set of friends you can sort your email by those friends.
They also have a free communities application, you can set up communities within that social area, so they’re bringing more and more functionality out.
They’ve got hang outs, which is the video conferencing and it’s all integrated into every bit of the system. So it becomes easier and easier and more integrated to use.
So they’re putting a lot of time and effort into this and it’s early days with it, and people are beginning to go onto Google Plus more, because ultimate with all that effort, it’s collating all that content and it’s giving you better search results because it’s part of Google.
So if you like, when you’ve used Google Plus and you put content on Google Plus, and you know You Tube is integrated with it too. It’s all that time giving you higher and higher potential to get higher search rankings and being found and being understood is what it’s all about.

In the connected economy online communities continue to grow.

Connected Economy TV will be following ideas about the connected economy and will have more videos from Bob Barker.

Connected economy within Google

In our connected economy it is important for businesses to be social. Google has increased its connectivity with Google Plus, as Bob Barker discusses.
So Google is beginning to go social itself. Its Google plus network is only two years old and it’s still working out how best to use that glue.

But what they’ve done, if you look at the bar that Google has, when you look at the Google bar, the plus bar is right at the far left. It’s the first thing on the menu. It’s before search.
So they see social as very, very important. The thing that Google Plus does, is it gives people an identity within the Google world and it allows people to share content within the Google world, and it allows people to connect with people in the Google world, and they’ve got a real tight integration with everything else that they do.
So within Google Plus you have circles of friends. So they’ve been really thinking through how do you operate in the social world.
So you can have circles of friends and those circles of friends can also reflect in your Google Mail, so if you want to look at, if you have a particular set of friends you can sort your email by those friends.
They also have a free communities application, you can set up communities within that social area, so they’re bringing more and more functionality out.
They’ve got hang outs, which is the video conferencing and it’s all integrated into every bit of the system. So it becomes easier and easier and more integrated to use.
So they’re putting a lot of time and effort into this and it’s early days with it, and people are beginning to go onto Google Plus more, because ultimate with all that effort, it’s collating all that content and it’s giving you better search results because it’s part of Google.
So if you like, when you’ve used Google Plus and you put content on Google Plus, and you know You Tube is integrated with it too. It’s all that time giving you higher and higher potential to get higher search rankings and being found and being understood is what it’s all about.

In the connected economy online communities continue to grow.

Connected Economy TV will be following ideas about the connected economy and will have more videos from Bob Barker.

What can social networking do for start-ups? Business development tips from Louis Gray

Communication strategy for start-ups

Communication strategy should start with a blog and expand on Twitter and Facebook according to Louis Gray, who gives his business development tips in this TV show.

Communication strategy and social networking

Companies getting started in this type of environment where the economics are difficult can actually leverage this type of weakness to look bigger than they are. One of the best things about social media is that people don't know the person behind the activity all the time. And so you have the tendency, if you do things right, to look like you're big, look like you're engaged, and get the word out. Social media is very cost effective. Somebody who can actively work social media can save tremendous amount of dollars versus traditional advertising. As a startup, your product is going to sell itself through differentiation. If you get bought in people who will communicate with you.
So as companies, be they startups or established, get started in social media, the first thing they want to do is have a central location where people can find out as much as they can about the company. Typically that's a blog. A blog can enable personal one-to-one communication from the highest levels within the company. After that, it really makes sense to get onto Twitter and Facebook and these other networks to hear what's being said, both about you and the industry. But without that blog, there's nowhere to go. So you make sure you have that blog, and then build out the social media ecosystem underneath that, which may include the other networks.
Keep an eye on Connected Economy TV for more discussion on communication strategy and social media.

UK innovation: we’re not quite world leaders

In this TV show John Kay discusses UK innovation. He compares new business development here to what is happening in other countries'.

More UK innovation please

I don’t think we have lost the art of developing new businesses and there are lots of people in the small, medium size enterprise sector who are developing exciting new businesses. But I think our success in developing businesses with competitive advantages over the last two or three decades doesn’t compare very well with the United States on the one hand that has created really exciting businesses of the Apple, Amazon, Google type or with a country like Germany where a lot of quite long established power house businesses have gone on developing their businesses successfully in new markets. There are some British companies that have been successful in these kind of ways but not enough and we need to try and ensure there are more of them.
Connected Economy TV will continue to look out for examples of UK innovation and will be following the surrounding discussion.

Data strategy needed for unstructured information

Data strategy is an increasingly hot discussion topic. In this TV show Keith Hodlt gives his view on the evolution of data.

Data strategy development

The data that’s out there is growing by the day and I think everybody’s very aware of that and accepts the fact that there is a data and there is an information explosion that’s happening. If you think now, I think what, in the future, the competitive business will be or businesses will be those that are able to exploit the data that’s available the best, not those that have the data.
Well in the past I think businesses and organisations looked largely internally at the data or at external structured data sources in terms of understanding how the markets were changing and what was going on and how they should evolve and adapt and so on, whereas now I think that 80% of data is outside the organisation. And it’s exactly in sources and pools like Twitter and Facebook and all of these unstructured areas that this is happening. And in Google’s book ‘Winning the Zero Moments of Truth’ they talk about the whole idea of people doing more and more research and looking more and more at what other people are saying about products and services before they buy them than ever before. And when I talk about organisations needing to use, external data, we’re needing to look beyond the box or beyond themselves to what’s out there and how best to use it. That’s the sort of thing I’m talking about. I’m talking about learning and adapting to how they can actually bring that to bear when they make their own corporate decisions, when they understand more about their customers, when they understand more about how they should be evolving to be able to deal with the market challenges and how the markets evolve and how they need to fit within that.
Connected Economy TV will continue to share insights and opinions on data strategy.

Innovative technology becoming affordable

Innovative technology like smart phones and tablets are becoming more accessible as new models are being brought out at cheaper prices. Stuff TV's Lucy Hedges discuses the latest state-of-the-art tech in this TV show.

Innovative technology from Google

What we’re seeing, especially from Google, they’re bringing out products that are really affordable but ram packed with the latest technology, be it their Nexus 4 smart phone which has just come out. It’s quad core, so it’s incredibly fast. It’s got the latest android operating system. So you’ve got one of the fastest phones on the planet, one of the most up-to-date smart phones on the planet, and it’s incredibly cheap, you can pick up an 8 gig model for £240. So it’s smart phones like this that are going to help people who aren’t that au fait with technology, to get a bit more used to how things are progressing. No one wants to spend 500 to £700 on a device they might use, you know, whereas Google’s ... what Google has done is enabling everybody, wants everyone to get involved with how technology is progressing, and it’s not just with their smart phone, they’ve got the Google Nexus 7, a tablet, seven inches. You know it’s the first tablet that’s put android on the map. It’s the first android tablet that’s a great alternative to the iPad. Until now, everything’s been great, but nothing’s been, oh my gosh, that’s amazing. And again it’s because of the price.
Quad core processer again, incredibly fast, got the latest jelly bean operating system, loads of different quirks that Google brings to the table. And because it is Google, it’s going to be at the forefront of all the updates, all the operating system upgrades and things like that. So I think it’s devices like this that’s going to help people move on and help people get to grips with how technology is moving.
There are more videos from Lucy Hedges on Connected Economy TV. Keep an eye out for more examples of innovative technology and its impact on the business world.

Social media usage is today’s reality

Social media usage has become a normal part of life and businesses should be using it as a way to understand customers. In this TV Don Pepper explains why ignoring the conversation is 1950s thinking.

Social media usage in business

Today, if you don't pay attention to your customer engagement, then what that means is you're not paying attention to the conversation. You're not paying attention to what your customers are saying about you, to each other. You're not engaged in that yourself. You're not paying attention to the level of attractiveness that your brand--. I mean what kind of brand manager would not want to know how engaged his customers are. I don't know, a brand manager in the 1950s maybe, I don't know. You're not in Kansas now. This is reality. Facebook and MySpace and YouTube and Flickr and LinkedIn and Orkut and all of the other kinds of social media sites. It's different. It's different now.

If you enjoyed this video about social media usage, please browse more shows on Connected Economy TV.

Louis Gray explains how to drive you social marketing strategy with a great blog

Connected marketing through blogging

Businesses now use more connected marketing. In this TV show Louis Gray explains how to drive you social marketing strategy with a great blog.

Connected Marketing and social strategy

If you're going to look at a blog, and you have to make frequent updates, you want to have to really know your product, and know your market and know your industry and care about it. If something looks forced, it is forced. And people aren't going to want to engange with something that looks like you did it just because you were told to. In order to have a successful blog that gets engagement from readers and potential customers, you need to really know your industry and study it. And have an energy to engage. And to have unique articles that can come out with the level of frequency that people will be return visitors, and find out that you're participating.
There are a number of companies who have embraced blogging. Two of them, and specific example, include Sun Microsystems and Cisco. Both of those companies have managed to take what's typically a very large enterprise, and turn that into a social experience for you have communities. Each one of those companies encourages its employees to participate, and speak on behalf of the company, with limits. You don't want to disparage the company. You want to speak about its products and its customers in a good light. And not to violate any kind of confidentiality and secrets you may have with partners or the company itself. It's been fantastic to see these companies that are traditionally closed, open up and really start to engage the rest of the blogosphere.
Companies that operate blogs, typically you want to see an update no less than once a week. The truth is, if you don't have enough content of unique nature to publish more than once a week, maybe you shouldn't be blogging. There's some people who also publish much more frequently than that. Upwards of multiple times a day. That depends on the topic, the subject matter, and what the individual knows about that space, where they can deliver unique content with value frequently.
Connected Economy TV will continue to follow ideas around connected marketing. Look out for more shows from Louis Gray.

Digital engagement allows companies to work with customers

Digital engagement is a big opportunity for companies to gain customer confidence. In this TV show Stan Rapp says smart companies have moved beyond “doing to” their customers.

Digital engagement: Strategy is crucial

We now have the opportunity to do so much more activity on Facebook, on Youtube, on Flickr, and so on. How we do it, what we do with the ability to do, is critically important. Unfortunately, there's been a past heritage of doing to the consumer. What I mean by doing to is in the old days you bombarded the consumer with your brand message until it penetrates, and now you change that consumer's behavior. I'm going to take that consumer and press them, and turn them in my direction. That's a doing to thing. Also, we do things to our customers to help us make more money in the short term. A good example, of course, is the financial industry, and banks, with the fees that they've laid on-- with the airlines, with the baggage fee, and somebody said a airline in the UK is going to charge to use the toilet next. I doubt it, but who knows what they'll think of? Of course, the frustration with travel is so intense, not only for the passengers, but for the crew, as well. We saw what happened recently in the media, about a terrible explosion of that temper, but everyone understood it. I think what was most striking about the steward evacuating and denouncing the passenger was that nobody was surprised, because the airlines have been doing so much to the passengers and to their employees by pushing them and demanding more. I remember when the airline stewardess was something to look forward to on the plane, because she looked after you. Now, she's the garbage collector. They've done something to their employees and something to their passengers. That's the doing to thing. If we're going to get involved and engaged, it's what we do with and what we do for that's important, because when now can do things with our customers, because we know who they are. They come to us either at our website, or they come to us on Facebook. They come to us because they start with a certain degree of confidence in us, and sympatico with the product.
Connected Economy TV will continue to look at digital engagement and its effect on business.

Connected marketing in a digital market

Social media means that business are going online and achieving more connected marketing. In this video Don Peppers explains why today’s market demands are different marketing.

Connected marketing conversations

Don Peppers: Every business out there is focused on generating sales and generating profit, but you can't do that simply by taking advantage of customers. You've got to do it by working with customers and participating in the conversation now. You're not going to be able to continue doing business the old-fashioned way. You have to participate in these new social media.
Micheal Fisher: I do not know in our history a period of time where a channel and a group of technologies could be more disruptive to a brand, than where we sit right now.
Connected Economy TV will continue to follow ideas around connected marketing.

Data strategy for multimedia content

Search is a really important part of what Google does in travel.
So people typing something in and then getting a response that’s relevant.
But also you know, people are now going onto video a lot more, so YouTube and being able to look and see what a hotel’s like or what a holiday’s like is really key.
And then also we’re developing things like hotel finder and that amalgamates all the bits of data and information that a user would need in order to book a hotel for example.
So it’s got the pictures. It’s got the price point. It’s got reviews. And it’s got maps.
And it’s got all the things that help a user get to that point from, you know, thinking about maybe going somewhere and actually facilitating that actual transaction and booking through a third party.
Connected Economy TV will continue to follow ideas around data strategy and there are more videos from Nigel Huddleston.

Social media usage improving cultural identity

Social media usage can work in a number of different ways, it is very powerful and can fulfil specific functions as Professor Ian Goldin discusses in this TV show,

Social media usage and globalisation

As these networks proliferate I think some will become powerful and some will become very functional. So if you are running a marathon in your town and you want to hook up with people running a marathon in your town, that's fantastic. These bring people together.
They also interestingly enough lead to a real improvement within globalization of cultural identity. The French were very worried that globalisation would lead to everyone say having to eat hamburgers from McDonalds and wear Levis but what this has done, is it has lead to the recreation of real identity, and some identities which were almost lost like the Armenian identity has been recreated through social networks, languages are being kept alive through social networks. So there's some very very positive forces which are interesting in globalisation which make things actually more local and more culturally resonant than we might have imagined.
Connected Economy TV will continue to follow ideas around social media usage and there are more TV shows from Professor Ian Goldin

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